T.S. Chalmers letter to Mrs. Elizabeth C. Clarke - August 3, 1922

Transcript

[Chalmers & Williams letterhead] August 3rd, 1922 Mrs. Powhatan H. Clarke. Moorland Hotel. Gloucester, [Massachusetts] My dear Mrs. Clarke: Your letter of the 29th has just reached me here and the memory which it recalls of your son was indeed very pleasant and it comes to me as quite a shock to hear of his death. I remember him very well, and the interest he took in his work, and the pleasure it was to have a person serving under me who you could depend on to carry out promptly and efficiently anything that you gave him to do. We had many serious problems in work behind the lines during the big influx of troops in 1918, and noting except wholehearted work made it possible for us to handle as efficiently as we did the problems which we had to face. In this, your son, one of the links, helped to make a strong chain. I am very sorry that I cannot give you any information regarding Lieut. Stevenson, as I cannot recall him, and feel sure that he never served under me. I am also unacquainted with any Major Coe in the Medical Department. The only Major Coe that I knew, and that your son may have referred to, was a Major of the 17th Engineers, stationed at St. Nazaire, in charge of construction work. Savaney is just outside of St. Nazaire, and as Major Coe was one of the men in charge of the construction of a large hospital at Savaney, it is more than probable that this is the person your son had reference to in his letters. I have lost track of Major Coe, but my recollection is that he was Chief Army Engineer of the Florida & East Coast Railway, when he went into the Army. I have none of my records here in New York with me, so I am unable to give you his initials, but I shall be very glad to look them up on my return to Chicago, and write you further. Undoubtedly, if you addressed a letter to the Chief of Ordnance, Washington, D.C. and asked for the address of Lieut. Stevenson who was stationed at Joncherey in 1918, he will be able to give you this information. If I can at any time, in any way, be of service to you please command me. Very Sincerely, T. S. Chalmers